The true story of the black doctors and nurses who tended to Civil War soldiers in the capital. Just as African Americans fought in defense of the Union during the Civil War, African American nurses, doctors, and surgeons worked to heal those soldiers. In the nation’s capital, these brave healthcare workers created a medical infrastructure for African Americans, by African Americans. Preeminent surgeon Alexander T. Augusta fought discrimination, visited President Lincoln, testified before Congress, and aided the war effort. Washington’s Freedmen’s Hospital was formed to serve the District’s growing free African American population, eventually becoming the Howard University Medical Center. These physicians would form the National Medical Association, the largest and oldest organization representing African American doctors and patients. This book recounts the heroic lives and work of Washington’s African American medical community during the Civil War.

The service of African Americans in defense of the Union during the Civil War required African American nurses, doctors and surgeons to heal those soldiers. In the nation's capital, these brave healthcare workers created a medical infrastructure for African Americans by African Americans. Preeminent surgeon Alexander T. Augusta fought discrimination, visited President Lincoln, testified before Congress and aided the war effort. Washington's Freedmen's Hospital was formed to serve the District's growing free African American population, eventually becoming the Howard University Medical Center. These physicians would form the National Medical Association, the largest and oldest organization representing African American doctors and patients. Author Heather M. Butts recounts the heroic lives and work of Washington's African American medical community during the Civil War.

Whether it is called shell shock, soldier's heart or PTSD, the devastation that war leaves in its wake is present throughout history. Soldiers and healthcare workers alike experienced such symptoms as depression, anxiety, rapid pulse and cardiac complications during the Civil War. Prominent figures such as Frederick Douglass, Medal of Honor winner Mary Edwards Walker, Clara Barton and others were instrumental in supporting healthcare for soldiers and medical workers. After the war, medical establishments in New York and Washington, D.C., arose to heal veterans physically and mentally. In 1866, Congress created the National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, one of many vital attempts to provide postwar medical support. Author Heather Butts recounts the heroism of those who fought, healed and suffered long after the war ended.

This book debunks popular myths and misconceptions about the American Civil War through primary source documents and shows how misinformation can become so widespread. The American Civil War deeply divided the nation and was a pivotal point in American history. The acrimony and bitterness of this four-year struggle, coupled with its importance to the fabric of American life, has resulted in the development and perpetuation of many myths about the conflict. This work separates myth from reality. The author examines 10 popular myths about the war, each of which is examined in terms of its origins and how it became ensconced in the American memory. It uses primary sources to explain the evolution of the myths and to inform the reader about what really happened, providing a unique quality to this work. Moreover, the book not only explains the flaws in the myth but encourages the reader to further investigate each of the topics.

From its origination, Arlington National Cemetery's history has been compellingly intertwined with that of African Americans. This book explains how the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the home of Robert E. Lee and a plantation of the enslaved, became a military camp for Federal troops, a freedmen's village and farm, and America's most important burial ground. During the Civil War, the property served as a pauper's cemetery for men too poor to be returned to their families, and some of the very first war dead to be buried there include over 1,500 men who served in the United States Colored Troops. More than 3,800 former slaves are interred in section 27, the property's original cemetery.

This two-volume set showcases the achievements of African American entrepreneurs and the various businesses that they founded, developed, or promote as well as the accomplishments of many African American leaders—both those whose work is well-known and other achievers who have been neglected in history. Nearly everyone is familiar with New York City's Wall Street, a financial center of the world, but much fewer individuals know about the black Wall Streets in Durham and Tulsa, where prominent examples of successful African American leaders emerged. Encyclopedia of African American Business: Updated and Revised Edition tells the fascinating story that is the history of African American business, providing readers with an inspiring image of the economic power of black people throughout their existence in the United States. It continues the historical account of developments in the African American business community and its leaders, describing the period from 18th-century America to the present day. The book describes current business leaders, opens a fuller and deeper insight into the topics chosen, and includes numerous statistical tables within the text and in a separate section at the back of the book. The encyclopedia is arranged under three broad headings: Entry List, Topical Entry List, and Africa American Business Leaders by Occupation. This arrangement introduces readers to the contents of the work and enables them to easily find information about specific individuals, topics, or occupations. The book will appeal to students from high school through graduate school as well as researchers, library directors, business enterprises, and anyone interested in biographical information on African Americas who are business leaders will benefit from the work.

This is the untold story of Dr. J. D. Harris (1833-1884), an African American physician whose life and career straddled enormous changes for Black professionals and the practice of medicine. Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Harris served as a contract surgeon to the Union army and transitioned to a similar post under the Freedmen's Bureau, treating Black troops and freedpeople in Virginia. Margaret Humphreys not only narrates what we know about Harris but offers context to his remarkable journey, including how incredible it was that a young man born into freedom in a slave state learned to read when literacy for Black people was illegal. He was one of very few African Americans to become a doctor before Howard Medical School opened in the 1870s, a fact that both reveals the structural barriers to medical education for Black Americans and highlights how those structures weakened in the 1860s. Drawing on census records, court records, Civil War and Reconstruction documents from the National Archives, African American newspapers, and more, this book is a revealing look at the history not only of medicine in the southern United States but also of race and citizenship during one of the nation's most tumultuous eras.